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raven · 13 days ago

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As someone who plays persona I feel you’re a good person to ask: should I play a persona game

you know a game is a real one when the answer is "if you do, please dont think im stupid for liking it". the first persona game anyone should ever play is persona 5 royal and that game is. well. the best part isnt until 70-90 hours in on average. tries really hard to be a social commentary but fumbles basically every aspect. can barely keep a cohesive character arc for most main characters. "the gameplay is really good though" -karl marx. so like short answer, do you have a hundred hours or so and want an excuse to hate on something's story and politics while also having a good time in the actual gameplay, sure... i feel like i can recommend this to any general person but i feel less confident recommending it to you specifically as i feel you are a woman of taste. but you're also someone who loves the slop at times. and what is this game if not slop. i put the rest under a read more because i said too much. My bad for being loquacious

like storywise i do like it... Mostly. and i do like the characters. and i think akechi is genuinely a great character, well written, well acted, yaoibait, knocked everything out of the park with him. he is what kept me going, but if you dont like characters whose main flaw is that theyre a teenager and therefore stupid, he might not click with you. like yeah, everything he does is poorly thought out... it's consistent. it's in character. and he does it with such swag, too. everything in the game's story seems designed around him, including the phantom thieves themselves. but i dont know whats in it for people who dont like him. not that you'll really get to know him for a good chunk of the game. which is the biggest thing... i could say "keep going, it gets better" but... does it? for everyone? it did for me, but it was made in a lab for me.

the game can understand that violence against women is wrong, but it doesnt understand what violence against women is. it can understand that the current system isnt working, but is too weak to actually take a stance on how to fix it. it's too obsessed with giving the player a power fantasy than to give them any challenges at all, or to make them think for a second. which i like in a game. i like it when games fuck up hard because theres more to discuss. and one of my biggest issues was discussed in the very last part. not necessarily to the depth i would have preferred, but it lets you draw your own conclusions. it also really shocked me at one point near the end there, which really colored my view in a positive way. i had grown complacent. i stopped thinking. i didnt think the game could do anything interesting... and then it did. but that level of shock was only because of my specific proclivities... i dunno. like it's hard to defend.. oh also theres a massive climax that builds up to a twist and reveal which is genuinely one of the worst ive seen a story ever do it, especially with such a strong set up. like genuinely laughable. but once you reach that part you're about 3/4 of the way through so you cant really stop there just have a laugh and know it's almost done.

the gameplay IS good though. like it's not only flashy, it's fun. i think the only issue is that it can be too easy, and the merciless mode is famously easier than hard. but as persona games go, it really is the best. it's just fun! the social sim elements are... well lets just say the majority of character writing in this game is stupid. otherwise, it can be fun to try to balance everything. it's possible to do it all on your first playthrough even if you don't know the perfect strategy, but if you fuck up too much you really wont be able to finish them all.

but heres the thing: metaphor refantazio just came out, which, aside from the time aspect (you have so much time lol) almost improves on persona 5 in every way. it's slightly less misogynistic. the social commentary... well, its fantasy racism, but it's a little more well thought out than p5's. but the main thing is the gameplay. and like, the gameplay in p5 was already good! metaphor is much more balanced for difficulty than p5's, but if you really get a hang of character building you can really take control. the slight differences in battle systems really take it for me. press turn system every day. i adore it. basically you get turns if you hit a weakness but if you miss you lose two turns. same goes for the enemies, so you can really get destroyed, but you can dodge every attack and they wont be able to do shit. but the story is, well, it's okay. there were some really good moments, and i liked it mostly because its kind of.. the least bad anyone could ever do it? it's pretty idealistic but just seemed like, nice in a way that i really cant describe. like, i have my issues with it that i could go into detail, but i still generally liked it. beautiful presentation as well-- and is that not all that matters? give me literally anything with a beautiful cutscene and I'll be tearing up. and the words "election magic" are so potent to me. its also shorter than p5r. but will it stick with me as much? no. would it have caused me to play the rest of the persona games? unsure. have i listened to the soundtrack so often while falling asleep that atlus is my number 5 artist on my spotify wrapped, not because the soundtrack is so calming or because i especially like it, but because i was trying to conjure a character in my dreams? NO. and persona 5 was a resounding yes on all fronts.

in terms of the other persona games, i dont recommend 4 unless you want to feel like, actually bad? i dunno it just put me in a foul mood. it was like radiation emanating from my switch for several weeks. incredibly homophobic with a side of (possibly slightly unintentional) transphobia. as well as some very fatphobic jokes (what game from this time period doesnt, but.. well it's bad every time!) and of course our classic misogyny. all this and the gameplay is worse than every other (new) persona game, and the story is fine. it thinks its twin peaks at the beginning. it is not twin peaks. LMFAO. 3 is better than 4 but theres not really a definitive edition even though it just got remade. each version has its ups and downs. if you look it up and any of it compels you i can give you more info on that one. the aesthetics alone are enough to be compelling , I'll admit. if you like boring and repetitive gameplay this ones for you! Im being serious. the story's pretty good though, and the characters are probably the best in the persona series. 2 (which is a duology, but the gameplay is the same and the second is well, a sequel) is pretty bad gameplay wise that i would only recommend if you're really into the series. i really liked the story but yeah i dunno. eh, it's fun. hard to recommend. 1 is okay. underwhelming. nothing much.

#i always say way too much about these games because its kinda a big time commitment but if you dont commit to the full time #i kind of lowkey feel really stupid because its like. well. kamoshida arc is pretty good but yusuke as a character starts off SO badly #that like if you were to drop the game right there id be like. yeah. fair. and then im the dumb one for liking it #like. but does it get better? i do think so. i really do... third semester really is everything..#okay. heres another side rant. post script. idk if i would play games the same way i do now if i did not play the persona series like a job #so im grateful to it for that. That being said-- if i was playing p5r now-- sooo fucking long. would i enjoy it as much? idk. probably not #i just dont like it when games are that long. and p5r i didnt play like it was a job either i was a little more chill with it.#its just... its such a time commitment lol.

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suffarustuffaru · 1 year ago

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Hey, how are you doing? Firstly, i'll understand if you choose not to answer this ask since the subject is controversial and kinda heavy

We currently have at least two pedos in the story, like, actual pedos (the guy obsessed with Liliana and the creepy butler that i forgot the name) and then tappei's writing in some things is just... weird?

I get that subaru and beatrice are supposed to have a sibling relationship, but it just weirds me out

And he keeps adding loli characters with questionable designs too

What is your opinion on this? Its something i manage to ignore, but it still weird me out a little

hi anon!! :o thanks for asking how im doing pfft im doing pretty well - though i am a college student and its This Time of Year (end of semester) so im hanging in here lmao 👍

also ok as for the topic at hand!! yeah no i 100% hate it. ive been thinking about rezeros flaws lately because the further you get into watching/reading rezero the Clearer it gets. its mostly fine at say, arc 1, but by the time you get to arc 5 or arc 8 its like. What the hell. This again?? so yeah its 100% understandable to be weirded out and uncomfortable by it because tappeis writing is frankly Gross sometimes.

(okay also yes this ask has minor or major arc 5+ spoilers yes and also. You know. detailed discussion regarding rezero sexualizing children.)

yeah so tappei writes problematic things into rezero regarding both women and children especially, and while theres exceptions its like. very Prevalent in rezero. i talked about it a bit in my last ask if youd like to check that out!! but yeah like. i hate how children are treated in rezero. its very Problematic a lot of the time.

tappeis writing follows very similar patterns regarding treatment of children and women that you see in a Lot of other anime/manga/japanese media - and media in general, really, but im sure most anime watchers / manga readers will know what im talking about because its unfortunately That common. we're all seen this. like fan service shots, lolis and shotas, etc etc. but rezero is a little more insidious i think, just because tappei is capable of writing good characters regardless of age or gender. and theres Less of stuff like fan service - or at least rezero is a little less obvious about it or its just seen less in rezero, but thats also because media in general is so in your face about it and Unfortunately Common so rezero looks like a tiny bit of paradise in the middle of a barren desert.

i mean look at the amount of people who've thought rezero was a harem anime until they watched rezero - rezero seems like an outlier but thats only because its just a tiny bit less gratuitous and it still has a lot of good writing. and also because i am pretty sure the bar for media like this - especially media in rezeros genre (isekai) is Extremely Low. like depressingly low. and despite rezero being a deconstruction of isekai, rezero also contradicts its own damn messages sometimes about treating others like the People they are, respecting others Personhood, treating women well, etc. and its easy to see that the moment you look at some of otsuka's artwork and designs for rezero or if you look at all the rezero merch mainly based around the girls and Sexualizing the girls and its like. my god this is a little depressing to look at. rezero is just a tiny step in the right direction away from say, misogynist shounen/seinen media thats also weird about kids or something, but then rezero trips and falls on its own face after taking several right moves.

the problem is that these problematic aspects are still there, theyre still clear to see if youre paying attention, and often character arcs start well but then fall flat despite the good foundation. and then the problematic aspects hammer the already Poor/Inconsistent Writing into the ground which it makes it Even Worse.

like louis is a great character. shes fascinating, really. and then you hit arc 7 and she regresses immediately into the mind of a toddler so we only get to see her amnesiabaru/Suffering From Rbd arc in arc 6, her confrontation with subaru, and then BAM its arc 7 time and now she is an entirely different person????? i remember raging the further i got into arc 7/8 and realizing she hasnt gotten any development, she just changed instantly. it just feels lazy to me!! unless tappei proves me wrong and writes her developing but right now louis has spent two goddamn arcs being subaru and rems loli prop/daughter prop/a plot device to use in battle, basically. okay sorry i got passionate there but i SWEAR it gets on my nerves a bit. the louis/spica conflict now would feel so much more thrilling if she didnt have her weird half assed arc 7 development.

like if i was really in the fantasy world, of course i wouldnt vote to kill spica, shes innocent now. she doesnt know shit about her crimes, shes a whole other person now. she didnt do those things. she is an innocent child. i did a poll on this a while back actually haah and yeah a lot of rz tumblr, including myself, voted to let her live for this reason!! but also like. narratively speaking. i do not care about spica at all. shes a blank slate, shes just there to move the plot, she is taking up space in the plot right now and she does not need to be here forever. i 1000% want her dead hah. yeah shes this cute little kid now, but again, she got zero development. why should i care about her?? all the interesting things about her in arc 6, all the potential that couldve happened out of her gradually going from her arc 6 self to someone who genuinely cares about rem and subaru is gone. If we actually saw this change, personally id care more about spica and be invested in her character but as it stands im really Not. and i think if we saw her actually Develop a lot of us readers would be more invested to see this conflict out - not only because our Favs are fighting over it, but also because we’d actually care about spica. Like. im not sure how many people actually care about louis past arc 6, but yeah thats just my personal thoughts on it.

And also the Other big flaw with louis’s character is tappei once again being creepy regarding kids and. Okay im gonna show an excerpt from the arc 6 WN (iirc ch60 to be exact?) and yeah fair warning because it is once again sexualizing a child (louis). But also im putting it here in case anyone wants to see some vivid proof of rezero being weird about kids. Im not sure if this was cut from the LN version or not but the fact that it exists At All makes me want to put tappei on a watchlist.

And okay i know you might be thinking about how louis represents the sin of gluttony anyway and gluttony includes sexual or romantic desire too and how having louis, who looks like a child, say this makes it even more Offputting - like. Yeah. but is it Necessary? because making louis, WHO LOOKS LIKE A CHILD, say all this and then use descriptors like “expressed a bewitching smile unsuited to her age” - is this Actually necessary? You have to be careful writing this sort of thing, because a child/character who looks like a child saying things like this due to being, you know, Mentally Unwell, is different from Emphasizing What Theyre Saying By Sexualizing Them via the narration and descriptions. And why is the sexologist line there?? its just frankly uncomfortable, to an unnecessary extent, i think. I just dont think we need all this emphasis on louis’s body, louis’s apparent “arousal”, or how her smile is “unsuited to her age” (this is the narrative once again sexualizing a child), and plot-related sex/sexual content in rezero is kept to a minimum anyway so you could also literally just have louis be weird about “loving subaru” without the sexual aspect. Because she literally just said that she was aroused by him. she looks like shes twelve at most and then in the arc immediately after this one she regresses back to having the mentality of a toddler!!! and then shes subaru’s daughter there.

And again, i know that the whole point of this scene is to be off-putting and disturbing and wrong in all sorts of ways (and also subaru tries to kill louis a page later so like.) but i think if youre going to keep the appetite=sexual desire detail (which IS a good point about gluttonys nature, on its own), then this scene absolutely needed to be handled better than what we got when the character saying this is a child. you can write a child sexualizing herself because shes frankly Unwell or Doesnt Know Better, because this is fiction and you can write sensitive topics like this with proper care, but if you, the author, are sexualizing this child, then that is a Whole Other Thing.

or you can entirely dodge this whole debate over whether or not this is actually okay to write by making louis look older. but tappei went with this route once again in a sea of rezeros various child characters despite the fact that tappei then decides to link sexual desire to the sin of gluttony, which is a sin occupied in rezero by three children. I know ley has a very traumatic backstory, and the specific details are escaping me but iirc he was likely a slave or something along those lines, with implications that hes been abused by adults, so you could delicately handle what kind of abuse he Couldve unfortunately had to go through, and also of course roy and louis are clearly not okay in the head either, but. Once again. Children in rezero Not Being Sexualized in some way is a rarity. Unfortunately.

you see this pop up again and again and again. petra? Yeah iirc theres a side story where shes weird about subarus underwear. Correct me if im wrong on that but also i would not be surprised if that was a real side story. Unfortunately. Also theres Uncomfortable lines regarding petras chest.

according to rezero wiki, schult is… well iirc al makes creepy comments about schult being a shota (and of course this isnt really called out in canon), and theres also these two details about schult:

also regarding sin archbishops who look very young, capella represents lust and yet she also looks like a child. i know the point of her design is to make her a bit grotesque, but you can get that point across without making her look fifteen years old at most. this is the sin of lust too. and shes already called “Mama” in canon—she doesnt need to look that young!!**

also side note about pandora. she also looks like a child, which—its okay with her, except for the frankly lazy outfit design imo?? why is she wearing a bedsheet??**

** another edit: its easy to see capella and pandora as women also, but again, tappei and otsuka In General keep mixing up short/young women and Children and it should be easy to tell if pandora and capella are children or young women or not. but i dont feel that its clear enough given tappei and otsuka’s Track Record.

and typhons design with the see through skirt is so creepy and disturbing that im Really glad the anime fixes it most of the time. heres the fixed version:

but also the anime Really doesnt fix it as much as it probably should, because her dress is Still see-through in some shots. you can even see a bit in this shot—we dont need to see her lower body area like That!! this skirt doesnt need to be see-through!! and the bar was already in hell anyway because otsuka makes typhon’s skirt Really see-through.

theres also this photo of typhons design and its Way better without that see-through skirt.

granted, there is some good child character designs—felt’s arc 1 design frankly sucks though purely because of the way her outfit is handled. like its Really bad. it takes only like one look to see that. but her arc 5 design is a Huge Improvement:

characters like meili, schult, child subaru, etc have good designs too, but you know, this doesnt change the Creepiness regarding children, because this also applies to subaru and Some Lines about him in arc 8 iirc. if i find them again ill talk about it another time (or if someone else finds it feel free to add on to this post?) but yeah just. urgh.

regarding felt again, theres a scene in a felt camp side story where she wakes up naked in bed, post arc 1, after reinhard kidnaps her to his mansion. and yeah, the whole point of the scene is to show reinhard is kind of dense and bad at reading social cues because hes still trying to talk to her very civilly while shes covering herself with the bedsheets and she Literally just got kidnapped by him, but, say it with me, she doesnt need to be naked. she couldve woken up in bed in her usual clothes and the point still wouldve come across!! WHY is she naked??? shes fourteen.

and also like capella, liliana looks like a child. and of course theres kiritaka, as anon said, whos obsessed with liliana, and then theres clind, the creepy butler. and of course tappei has “deniability” because lilianas not Really a child (she STILL looks like one), and clinds not Really a pedophile, he just likes youthful souls!! (this is literally disgusting.) and clind may have interesting lore or whatever about how hes kind of involved with the sin archbishop of melancholy but i just dont give a shit about him when hes a pedophile that tappei keeps excusing.

also mimi? mimi is a Special Case.

the thing with mimi and her brothers is that its implied in the kararagi girl and cats eye side stories that kittypersons (??) are fully grown by age 1. theyre rescued from dying on the streets but they insist theyre “fully grown” (at age 2-3). they havent changed physically at all. and they dont change physically at all later, because now in the Present Day they all look Exactly the same as they did when they were 1, 2, 3 years old. did they grow mentally???? theyre like 14-15 in the main route. and then you look at aganau route from the lost in memories mobile game which takes place around twenty (??) years after arc 3, and mimi is a grown woman and she looks exactly the same as she did when she was 14 or 2 years old. and then this makes her romance with garfiel a little weird because hes a normal fourteen year old??? but mimis been fully grown all this time??? what??

this is mimi. yeah, she and her brothers look EXACTLY this age their WHOLE LIVES.

and meili? yeah shes definitely one of the better child characters, though she does have an Extremely Traumatic backstory and has had a habit of copying elsa. this on its own is fine and understandable. elsa was her only support and shes a child, of course shes gonna copy elsa. though iirc she also copies elsa’s “flirtatious” aspects, which is honestly also understandable given elsa is a Questionable Influence, but this detail about meili’s character gets worse when you think about it in the context of all the other child characters—

why is it that all the children tappei (and otsuka) keep sexualizing are in the same age range? theyre about 9 or 10 to 14. louis stops being sexualized when she reverts to being a toddler and becomes subarus daughter. felt stops being sexualized when she turns 15 in arc 5. emilia is the main love interest to subaru and shes apparently “mentally 14”?? and shes tappeis favorite character too? but also mimis case is so weird because shes been “fully grown” since the tender age of ONE YEARS OLD?? well also i sure hope im wrong on this point but given the amount of child characters that fall in this age range and also how Often theyre all sexualized and also the majority of them are Young Girls—yeah its. its not a great look.

(and again a side note about meili again—tappei uses similar descriptors that he used for louis: that its “inappropriate for her age” and that she’ll “attract many men in the future”. tappei stfu. please.)

subaru’s lolimancer title is kind of funny. maybe. until you remember rezero being creepy about kids. and also like—i dont like the idea of tying a word like “loli” to the literal main character of the story anyway skdnd. theres just Connotations to it.**

**EDIT: i was told that “loli” is apparently a fan translation thing, while in japanese its “little girl user”, but in an inoffensive way (like Jojo’s “stand user”). make of that what you will!! (not great that the fan translation makes rezeros already poor treatment of kids Even Worse.)

and also—was subaru, al, medium, etc turning into children really necessary?

like in subarus case, its so he can have more ego, more confidence, more recklessness while being nerfed a bit and being mistaken as the emperor’s son—but at the same time, this just feels like a watered down version of the amnesiabaru arc to me where he has more ego, more confidence, more recklessness, and hes nerfed, but then he learns to love himself more. it just feels too similar to the amnesiabaru arc imo. him turning into a child feels very unnecessary imo and it doesnt look great when you remember tappei and otsuka’s fixation on children. literally arc 8 would be exactly or almost exactly the same if subaru was back to his usual 18/19-year old self. but he has to keep being a kid right now because Plot, apparently. then again if anyone disagrees with me on this feel free to explain your stance!! but yeah as of rn i just want subaru to be back to his usual age.

also tappeis weird about young priscilla/prisca and lamia but i havent read the ex novels about them yet so i cannot go in depth 👍 but just know you get nice lovely lines (sarcasm) like “flirty way she caresses her own thighs”. great!!! thanks tappei for fanservicing underage teenage girls once again!!

and again, treatment of child characters / characters who look younger than they are in rezero—this is so so creepy also as someone who does in fact look younger than my age. and im also Very Short (4’11) too. so like. thanks tappei and otsuka!! i feel very comfortable right now 👍

and women are often infantilized in rezero which you can. Easily connect to the pedophilia, yeah. theres also age gap romances in general, and i mentioned emilia already (yeah. emisuba is an age gap romance.), but theres also ram and roswaal, frederica and clind, anastasia iirc gets described Weirdly sometimes because shes a short flat-chested woman, and recently theres been madeline and balleroy having a small moment (that feels. Romance coded. iirc.) in an arc 8 chapter.

they look like this by the way:

thanks tappei and otsuka once again for the creepy writing and designs that actively work against all the good parts of the damn story 👍

on a lighter note, i think beatrice in general + beatrice and subarus relationship is one of the better parts of rezero—iirc theres nothing creepy about it, and beatrice and subaru are very easy to read as a sister and brother relationship. theyve helped each other out in many ways, and theyve grown Very close by the time we see them in arc 5!! you could. Technically see their relationship as a father-daughter one too, but i dislike that take—not for bad reasons, but just because i feel like it doesnt fit them.

the thing with beatrice though is that shes simultaneously A Child but shes also like. 400 years old. so i do wish the narrative balanced that more post-arc 4–not in a creepy way of course. god no. but in the sense that shes mature in a lot of ways!! shes familiar with death and suffering!! shes intimately known Isolation!! that sort of thing. shes the one whos closest to subaru because of how he helped her in arc 4 (“choose me”), and also because she knows about his self-harm and heals his injuries. shes someone who can deeply understand subaru in a lot of ways in this sense, at least. the way they support each other feels more like a sibling bond to me and not a Parent-Child one just because youre not Really supposed to be leaning this much on your child for support. theres a power dynamic to a Parent-Child relationship, and beatrice and subaru are Equals.

plus echidna gaslight gatekeep girlbossed both of them, so theyre also siblings in that sense hah…

but yeah correct me if im wrong on that though regarding beatrice and subaru and im missing something?? but yeah as far as i remember and as far as i can tell, i think theyre actually one of the least creepy parts of rezero hah :,)

and then because this sort of thing is Unfortunately so common in media like rezero, we’re kind of conditioned to try and ignore it so we can keep reading or watching because its Everywhere. i still enjoy some of rezero, but its hard to ignore All Of This. and i think its important not to turn your brain off to it and recognize whats Wrong here, yeah. (unless it makes you so uncomfortable that you have to stop looking at rezero, which is very understandable.)

but yep. thats rezero for you.

#rezero #re:zero #ask #tw pedophila mention #tldr rezeros treatment of kids is Horrible and i hate it 😔#like so many of these characters would be so good without the problematic aspects!!#you can write sensitive topics like this but you cannot be Supporting them as you do that!!

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doomsdaydicecascader · 10 months ago

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What would you say was the thing that really shifted your opinion on postcanon stuff? I remember reading your long form posts about it and finding them pretty eloquent and interesting given the information I had (and I admit they did nudge me to me to end up not reading the epilogues along with the sheer length and my own squeamishness, though of course you also gave them their due when you felt it was fair)

if i'm being real, it's primarily interaction with other homestuck fans - my social media spaces tend to be pretty heavily curated, i basically only follow people i trust to be intelligent, since like. there is a level of comfort and complacency with social media? i don't like following new people, i don't like unfollowing old people. so i just dont branch out that much.

but i joined the mspfa discord in........ may of last year? while i really enjoy playing the role of like, i compared myself to solaire of astora once. guy who is there to help. i enjoy doing that, there is fun in that. i have spent many hours over the past months explaining homestuck plot points in ways that basically only i would and it is largely, pearls before swine, because the fact is that people dont want to understand post-canon, they don't want to like, pick at it critically, to understand why the decisions were made, they want to hate post-canon. and this is a very critical difference between me not liking post-canon and the majority of people hating post-canon.

and there is something to be said about experiencing homestuck as it is perceived by other people, to really solidify what i liked about homestuck post-canon, because there was stuff i liked to begin with. and seeing people who hate it without good reason frustrate me! genuinely, if you had to see the same "i heard jade has a dog penis" discussions every 2 weeks from some sprout who showed up only to be mad, you would start to defend it too.

like, i actually delayed that second blog post at the time because hatred for the team was flaring up again, for whatever reason, i don't even remember. but i remember putting it off because i didn't want to contribute to people who were blindly angry about homestuck^2

there are reasons to not like post-canon, lord knows there are plenty. i actually stand by basically everything i said about it not actually working and the times where it goes too far. in the second blog post, not the first one. but like, there is a total and all-encompassing difference in what the conversation is, "yeah, the meat and candy thing doesnt really work and dirks graphic suicide is ill-considered at best" doesnt matter at all when the level people are operating on is "say a plot point as a joke, make people mad, have fun circlejerking over how bad it is"

part of it is also that in the process of writing my own comic, it kind of comes with the territory to be less precious about the characters. like, team slime, my home discord server, watches movies every saturday. for a while, our theme was musicals, and eventually, we watched hamilton. and i realized that lin manuel miranda writes alexander hamilton in the exact way i am always afraid i am writing jane and vriska, like. just. truly relentlessly protective of them. and so being less precious about these characters means recognizing the flaws therein, not being afraid to write them just being kind of disasters. i still am pretty precious about them, but its a work in progress. you gotta get your hands dirty with them, and that puts it in context of respecting when others do the same

like, there are still a lot of really glaring flaws in post-canon, dont get me wrong, but theyre not insurmountable, and it helps to have spaces like burning down the house for me to express directly like. what i wanted out of homestuck. post-canon is not what i want it to be, but when has homestuck ever given anyone what they wanted without any complications whatsoever

and i think it is genuinely capable of being extremely good - this recent update (yiffy overlooking the rosemary drama) is extremely choice! i genuinely love how everyone involved is characterized, the panels are flashy, it puts to bed really stupid shit, like. its unbelievably fucking good how the problem kanaya has isnt "rose had another kid with jade in secret, our marriage is in shambles" but "jane knows about this kid", like. the absence of infidelity conflict is refreshing and says so much about everyone involved. and i have been thinking nonstop about how rose and jades daughters takes after caliborn of all characters. like. "you hope they eat each other alive" with the perspective of like, a caliborn grin is such an INSANE direction to take yiffy! holy shit! its awesome!!!!!!!!

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mixxmoon · 3 months ago

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ok omg so I really want to make this post but don’t wanna spoil my friends if they possibly read sosf so I will drop this here since I think you’re literally the only person that cares on tumblr???

listen listen listen Evelyn and Dom are actually both such crucial characters in both sosf and doo because they are both fairly present in the story but not enough to truly direct it. in a sense they cause the story itself but it isn’t about them, more than anything they haunt it. both directly parallel Percy - going from a loved person who valued their family to someone consumed by their flaws - which is why Athena’s comparison of her to Percy to Zeus as the hidden child is so harrowing. part I making the characters believe they are fallen gods forces them to grapple with redemption and if redemption is even attainable for them if they are gods. and all that happens before the crescendo of part 2, 3, and especially 4 where they all make.. Decisions. it’s like if the narrative kept screaming at literally everybody “THIS IS YOUR FUTURE” before the events forcing this future to be inevitable occurred. Evelyn haunts the narrative because she’s quite literally a monster, even though deep down she’s just a person. Dom haunts it because he’s a person, even though deep down he’s really a god. by the time both are mainly absent from the plot, everybody else has become a blurred mix between all three.

+ it’s the making Dom looks like his father for me. because Dom did become his father just like Percy has become everything he hated. it’s the using Evelyn as justification for making Vera beg on her knees. its the ultimate callback for me ough.

Omggg this is so true!!! I love how they both haunt the narrative and that we’re shown how they impact the actions of the others while not even directly influencing them. Because we’re seeing this all through the eyes of an outsider, someone who can acknowledge them but not truly understand how theyre impacting people who were once close to Evelyn and Dom. There are people constantly doing things as a consequence of the actions of Evelyn, Dom, and especiallyyyy Percy!! This whole thing was kickstarted by Evelyn with Dom/Zeus actually starting it and Percy picking it up and worsening the whole situation. Majority of the bad decisions were caused because of Percy 🙂‍↔️ But I do love the parallels of the three and how connected they are ❤️❤️ The three have all suffered with Percy having a blend of what both Evelyn and Dom have gone through yet that doesnt them from causing pain to others because theyre too stuck on their beliefs. Thankfully Evelyn was able to get some sense in her after she saw the resemblance that Heracules had with her. I have a feeling Dom is getting to see what hes caused and finally becoming better but Percy… Hes gonna take a long while if he doesnt get help immediately. What is it with these three just becoming everything they hate 😒 Athenas comparison was just sooooo It really shows how power can get to your head to the point where you forget your roots

Everything else you wrote though… I AM SHAKING YOU VIOLENTLY I would love to add more to what you said but you summed it up so perfectly I cant find anything to say 😭I just want everyone to get a happy ending 😢 When I say everyone I mean EVERYONEEEEE I do fear that Percy is far too gone and seeing that Trials of Zeus takes about 8 years in the future… Percys going to get worse before he gets better 😬

#ask #son of sea foam #caffeinatedflumadiddle #sosf #pjo #descendants of olympus #percy jackson #evelyn laurent #zeus pjo #dom sosf #Im not good at writing my thoughts out so apologies for how unorganized this is <33

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nanitasheart · 9 months ago

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this is a bit rant-y feel free to skip

i'm a bit tired of being in fandom spaces where people constantly generalise and make black and white takes about the characters... i know it's not like a massive deal and i can just block these people (and i'm not saying i don't do that) but its just a bit annoying yknow?

i think it just gets under my skin as a writer + looking at characters from a writer's viewpoint that the main point of watching a show is to see character conflict and how the characters (work to) resolve that and seeing characters with one-dimensional personalities or relationships makes for a boring show so why reduce them in long posts in the same way?

not sure if this is a crazy take but with morally grey characters saying "xyz character is so cute and can do nothing wrong"/woobifying them is just as much of a disservice to their character and the people that wrote them as saying "xyz character is irredeemable and saying they can have good moments is bad and they should suffer 24/7" because the whole point is theyre morally grey and don't conform to being "bad" or "good" constantly in their show, even if they have a majority of one trait

also i see often people let their personal takes and experiences influence their opinions on a character which is fine but when this extends to policing how people view/interact/interpret a character it also gets a bit jarring to look at ... (i understand the irony behind saying this though LOL but to clarify i'm not saying you have to interpret characters a certain way/can't generalise their character for the sake of simplicity or something but going on long tirades about how awful a character is when they do have at least a few redeeming qualities just seems a bit pointless imo)

anyway my point is: look at characters with nuance! acknowledge both their strengths and their flaws! it's more often than not that a main character in a show isn't 100% "good pure angel saint" or 100% "bad irredeemable satan spawn of hell" and going on big rants about one or the other while disregarding the aspects of their character you don't personally like/want to focus on to bolster your narrative of a character is annoying to read /lh

#i dont normally go on big speeches online like this #mostly because i find it a bit pointless #but i thought i might make it known to people what my views are... for fun!#nanapost #my text #metapost

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naupactus · 1 year ago

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"weight shaming" rant under cut bc i came out the shower with thoughts

tbh i dont think skinnyshaming is a real thing. this noon my family told me i looked anorexic as if worried and told me i had to eat more which yeah it was bad and made me feel shitty about my body for a moment (i imagine it wouldve had more of an impact if i wasnt already very secure) but i dont think id equate it to the shaming fat women endure. because these same people who tell me i look sick when they look at my back and my arms also tell me theyre jealous that i have a flatter stomach than them.

the difference is when you get comments about being skinny they're based on a false and shallow sense of worry while comments about being fat are always framed as a personal failure. and thats what makes it "shame" and not just negativity. even though the occasional concern is voiced about health, that's not the kind of comment the majority of the population receives and rather just for people who are visibly obese. and still then, from actually obese people to someone with love handles, it's somehow framed as something sinful that not only impacts you but the people around you even though this is bullshit. there's this underlying hatred of fat people and belief that their weight is tied to recklessness and gluttony that has to be shamed and called out to be fixed, i think

on the other hand what fuels negative comments towards skinny people, from what ive seen and experienced, doesnt come from a place of blame and hatred but from stigmatization of mental illness. the only times ive received negative remarks about my body it's been from people who saw me and saw something a little too similar to a drug addict or a person with an eating disorder, and that triggered a disgust-pity response, even if they know im healthy. the comments never include something about convenience or ugliness, only health. it sometimes also transcends into comparisons to physical illness and poverty, but when these comments are made within a middle class context it's always with the implication that it's self inflicted and something to have pity on.

for negative views of both cases, in women as well as in men, it's i think triggered by the fact that both fail to fit into the social standard for what a healthy person should look like. someone who associates body weight to health, health to beauty and beauty to personal worth, feels the need to subconsciously justify their shock and disgust at seeing someone who deviates that standard by lying to themselves and saying the reason why those people look the way they do must surely be a personal flaw to be treated

#okay i dont think this is about skinnyshaming anymore i was supposed to just be ranting and i accidentally wrote an essay

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mogai-sunflowers · 2 years ago

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i wasnt bait asking i seen someone who's voldermortkin and trans , just liking hp is transphobic so imagine if their kintype is hp? how someone can be trans and liking hp??

they deserve harassment theyre not valid

I don’t know how to break it to you but the simple act of liking a problematic media does not make you bad. there’s a shit ton of people who LIKE hp but refuse to support it or it’s creator because they care more about trans ppl, poc, and Jewish people than their like of a certain media. I have no interest in shitting on people for liking problematic media. by that logic, I’m a fascist for liking a few shows that have cop characters even though I have an articulated plan for how to get involved in abolition in my future. liking media is truly irrelevant to morality. there is a major fucking difference between liking a media, and blatantly and unwaveringly supporting it or its bad creator. idgaf if you like hp or parts of it and if you’re kin from that universe, just don’t be a dipshit by actually investing in it and ignoring it’s obvious flaws. My sister loves Harry Potter and she would be the person who would take me in in a heartbeat if something ever happened to me because I’m not cis. Equating liking a media to someone’s entire morality is so fucking simplistic and weird. Plus, I still don’t think people deserve to be bullied. So we have a fundamental difference in our views anon. Take a breather and realize that not everyone is secretly some horrible bigot who needs to be harassed to the end of the earth.

#🌌when the stars align ; reigns rambles🌌#tw discourse #tw hp #tw harry potter #I won’t answer any more asks about this btw if you don’t like my views on it that’s fine you can block and move on

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cloneslugs · 1 year ago

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cough.

breakdown w novia where she ends up puking bc shes crying so hard/so upset is like good & funny in the moment. honestly was a missed opportunity though to have her opening up like that w a one off woman character (R.I.P.) & Gary. she should have been going through the nastiest mental health episode s6 (this is to parallel rusty as well (bc they should have done more w that. bc theyre both transgender and also just bc their relationship was just kind of thrown into the garbage even though they have something really cool potentially under the surface. and return to malice btw. but that isnt this post. anyway)) so unfair she's made face of the guild, you have wandering spider's widow blaming her ass alone for the guild fuck ups & the rest of the council (cough. phantom limb) letting it happen & always putting the most pressure on her. and she's the one juggling the move to council life the worst & it makes he feel guiltier and she's choking on guilt worse than her husband is when he's doing the most selfish thing imaginable as a husband . and her marriage is falling apart and she blames herself & he blames her for not making things easier for him or making him do paperwork or "working against him" and doesnt consider how she feels having to make those decisions. and her biggest gripe when her husband is breaking rules in front of her is that he hangs up on her so she really is team monarch but he doesnt believe it & etc etc etc so much shit, he doesn't even apologize or anything he's mostly just focused on being out of the doghouse & she has to drop it bc well he just killed his dad and also bc women get no real emotional development . this post was supposed to get to the point of that she should have had that breakdown in front of PL to also acknowledge the fact that she never got closure with him (monarch is still allowed to have a big vendetta thing against him but she's treated as an object to be won by the both of them, she's used as a pawn at her own wedding "did you really think this was about you" type thing and its never addressed again as if malcolm's jealousy is the most important. ANYWAY.) and its interesting bc i think PL more than anyone knows that she feels a need to feel useful -> easy to use, and he's always had a knack for playing w her/using her & fine whatever they act like colleagues now but he should have kept up his evil asshole thing, doesnt actually care about her feelings & holds major grudges/etc etc & he's the one making her the face of the council & he's the remnant of a flaw in her relationship/something that feels like a mistake on her part so she would take it out on him until a breaking point. whatever see my vision.

#text tag

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bluiex · 1 year ago

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OKAY SO

c!DocM77 FANLORE

Warning: This massive fucking wall of text contains discussion of war, violence, seperation from one's family, implied/assumed child death, implied death overall, Entire Villages Burning Down, explosions and people injured in explosions, mild gore if your imagination is vivid though i tried not to describe it too gruesomely, a bit of internalized ableism regarding large injuries prosthetic use, and ✨PTSD symptoms✨! Proceed with caution, fellow blockmen enjoyers.

doc lived a majority of his life in a simple little village in a distant server, working on mechanical projects and tinkering for people. he's very autistic and very undiagnosed.

asp he met a lovely individual- an eagle avian- and they had a kid, that kid being doccy

doc still remembers the way his heart /soared/ when doccy took their first wobbly steps, a few hours after birth

he can also still remember how about a w33k later his heart sank when he saw his name on the draft list

his child isn't even a full 7 days old and he's already being told he's going to war, to fight for a government that's never done a god damn thing for him

he can't say no. he has literally no choice, so his community, who he's all close with, swears to him that they'll make sure his child knows they're loved- that their papa is away for a while but that he'll be back

he's just a regular foot soldier, and that's fine by him. he frequently ALMOST gets in trouble for fucking with machines he doesnt have the authority to be messing with

keyword almost because they always realize 'ah. hes fixed the crucial flaw we couldnt figure out.'

one day he's out on the field being Actively Shot At, and a machine nearby breaks down

it provides excellent cover so he runs to go fix it

and forgets that the fuel tank being shot is also a risk

the fuel tank is shot and the machine fucking explodes

it takes hours for anyone to find him, and when he is found, he's damn near dead already. the left side of his face has been practically flayed off by a piece of metal, and his right arm is just... fucking mangled

they bring him to the triage tent, blah blah blah have to amputate his arm + remove his absolutely brutalized eye

so when they send him home- he is far too damaged to fight- and he finds his cozy little village practically incinerated, still smouldering, corpses everywhere,

he cant even be surprised

but his heart shatters when he finds the little butterfly plushie that his neighbour made for doccy

he wanders, pretty much fucking entirely dissociated, for days on end, until a group of vagrants picks him up. he's so dead silent they assume he's a mute [doc having verbal shutdowns as a result of stress so real]

the first thing he says after Several days,

is his child's name, clutching that little plush butterfly in trembling hands

someone can tell he's grieving, and coaxes him into talking abt his kid

and then someone interrupts halfway with

HOLY SHIT WE MET THAT KID???

and doc very rapidly goes from being almost too quiet to hear,

to extremely loudly stating that THEY WILL HELP HIM FIND HIS FUCKING KID.

now, doccy's not even 3 months old yet

theyre just so fucking lost and confused and scared. they joined the first group of people they could, thinking in 2.75monthold logic that 'everyone ive ever met is papa's friend. i have now met these people. they must be papa's friends. im staying with them now'

when doc and doccy find eachother again he just breaks down sobbing, and the moment doc can, he gets the FUCK off of that server and takes doccy with him

he jailbreaks his comm to ignore whitelist functions, private server protections, etc., and server hops relentlessly until he can find a safe place to stay- which is how he comes across hermitcraft, around early S3

the moment he's on server he's being absolutely swarmed by hermits wanting to know who he is, what he wants, how he fuckin got in

and he's entirely ready to fight all these people off and get the hell out

but then someone spots doccy and everyone immediately pauses

and they start to notice the way doc's entire posture reads as someone with no intent to harm

they see the wild, yet unfocused look in his eye, how fresh his scars clearly are, how clumsily he weilds his prosthetic arm

they take stock of how every time he moves, it is to achieve one if thr33 things:

making himself look bigger

k33ping the hermits away from him

k33ping doccy close to him

they all pretty quickly realize 'this guy n33ds somewhere safe to live'

keralis lets Doc stay in his home while he settles in. eventually he moves out,

into a literal hole a little ways away

and from then on, it's history, they all lived happily ever after*

*doc has major ptsd. there are some days where the idea of being too far from doccy terrifies him. he struggles with his prosthetic for ages before he says 'fuck it' and builds his cybernetics. some days he regrets that decision, as he would like nothing more than to strip the metal from his body. some days he would rather be incomplete, than a twisted amalgam of man and machine.

the first time he hears any talk of war on the server, he panics, and tries to leave. they have to explain to him that 'war' just means 'we get silly'.

he struggles to bond closely with the hermits. some nights he dreams of tragedy. he dreams that he finds his new home scorched into nothing.

but that is what it is. home.

================================

OKAY THATS MY DOC LORE. hehehehhehehehe. bluie ik ur in a state where long sends are A Lot so dont worry abt trying to get to this, just take care of yourself, alright?

#again IM SO SORRY FOR NOT RESPONDING #BUT PLEADE PLEASE KNOW I READ ALL THIS AND WOWOWOWOWOWOW YOURE SO GOOD FOR THIS #long post #read its warnings at the top ples

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everybody-loves-purdy · 1 year ago

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I dont really count anything he does in tbc as good, because its all done not out of kindness or goodness, but to specifically spite the other clans for not believing his son and/or because they tried to tell him what to do. He's a contrarian who incidentqlly did something that the heroes could use to help themselves. He's doing thesame thing is asc where hevery clearly did something out of emotion he had nowhere else to direct but at the first outsider group he could reason into blame for his family tragedy and then stubbornly sticks to the choice out of spite for everyone including his ancestors and own clan telling him it was the wrong move.

But yeah, the family thing is super right. His focus on his family isn't portrayed as sweet or healthy, but possessive and a major flaw in character and leadership and mindset. But people see a guy who picked out the first girl with a nonconfrontational personality he could groom into the perfect wife and act like theyre just a cute match made in heaven power couple. He plays a role in his childrens lives so hes the good dad, even though all his children walk on eggshells around him and hes willing to turn on them on a dime if dovewing is involved. Only Tawnypelt is ever shown to be able to stand up to him and she frequently has to be his voice of reason despite him being a grown man and leader and her old enough to join the elders.

This is an extremely good analysis of him

I really hope (since the Erins seem to know who he is as well given how he’s being written and how other characters talk about him) his character arc in this arc is one of “hubris must be punished”. He cannot be rewarded for what he is doing, and the narrative acknowledges these actions as wrong. I feel like/hope he loses something significant in his life due to his stubbornness and pride over this RiverClan situation. Maybe he could be the first clan leader to be removed from power with these new code changes?

Other cats have lost so much because of his actions. I feel like he should get a turn.

#Tigerstar #Tigerheartstar #Tigerheart #anonymous

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borealiszero · 1 year ago

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sooo out of all the characters in cursed, would you say you have a favourite? i’m intrigued, also feel free to just talk about the lore if u want to!! (love all of the character designs btw, theyre really cool 👍)

Thank you so much for sending this ask!!!!! It's actually hard to say which one is my favourite but like all the time i keep coming back is Sam Chevannes!!!

Long rambling under the cut

In this world, it's a post massive colonial era plus supernatural stuff but the supernatural are banned from being spoken about because the Christian said that's not what Jesus said in the bible (they fuckin lied). One of the supernaturals are crafters, they are normal human that has honed the skill of their ancestors that it became an ability unique to them (its teacheable but we'll get to that later).

So Sam Chevannes is one of the Crafters, his are Nullifier, which means he can null other people's craft. The problem is, he is suffering from RCD (rebounded craft disorder) means that he can nullify everything including himself, which became a terminal illnes for him, forcing him to be lobg time hospital patient for the majority of his childhood. After getting it under control via a special made ward, he worked at Maciat, and organisation that worked for the supernaturals. He's in the intelligence division, due to his craft and the fact that he's very good at gathering intelligence and being invincible (he swear he didn't do this on purpose).

In my storyline, he's the best friend of the protagonist, Pyrrha Halloran. He's very loyal to her, to the point of willing to betray Maciat for her without hesitation. He's also loves kids very much, and has adopted one (it's more of Yana adopting him actually). He also was tasked with neutralising an agent of the antagonist, Mercury, but he didn't kill mercury because he promised mercury's mom to find him. He's very?? idk what to say but he has this filter on himself that he doesn't deserve anything bc he was a burden due to his illness. He was actually surprised when people love him back lmao. He's also has this very casual attitude about his dying situation so he made jokes about it a lot.

One of my favourite aspect of him that he knows he has limited emotional quote and he strives to accomodate everyone that he met according to their need. Like when mercury was illegally placed at his house he tried his best to navigate through this traumatized, freshly out of a cult assassin's needs. He's also very loving!! His love spilled out of his ribcage and he cannot hold back that he is very much love his beloveds and cannot stop showing it. Like that one moment when pyrrha said that he deserved better friends than her he refuted and said that he said that being her friend is one of the best thing ever happened to him and he hoped that he died as her friend. He also has somewhat straight to the point attitude that can either came off the most amazing roast ever heard or the cringiest thing mankind can say. Also i like that he's very on board with beating up nazis and ableist just bc he can and his coworkers have to stop him physically, even if they're the one being insulated.

His fatal flaw is that he is very loyal. He will jump into the abyss to save people he loved, and he had done so. While Pyrrha sacrifice herself for the lesser evil, sam sacrifice himself for the better future of his beloveds. He will face the horror again and again for them. This frustrated Pyrrha bc unlike pyrrha, sam can permanently die. And he's the one getting mad that pyrrha is hurt even though it will heal quickly (the hypocrisy of these two 🙄).

If he has a character arc, it would be about how he has to face that he is loved, a burden that they willingly carry because it's him!! Who wouldn't carry the burden of people they love!!! Just like how he loves them, they also love him back!!!! Get loved idiot

Random fact about sam: whe he was five, he once was convinced that he was a cat and thus began to emulate cats behaviour like meowing, scratching, hissing, pawing stuff, eating and drinking like cats. His uncle doesn't know what to do. It lasted until he found out that cats cant eat chocolate then said to his uncle that he is birn a human again and never spoke of it again. He still does it sometimes, hissing and meowing.

#[borealis.mail]#THANK YOU FOR ASKING AAAAAAAAAAA #so glad you asked cause this post made me flesh this world out more #i have so many things thinking about him but aughhhhhh hes so spinnable in my head #extra fun fact: he loves cats but is dog coded #he also sings badly but he still sings bc its his way to stim #he also a VERY good cook and its his hobby #sam chevannes #oc tag #[cursed:research]#the way all the lores rush into my brain 💀💀💀#ALSO about the fact that he's very good at spying: he swear he didn't do it on purpose. he just happened to be at the same time and place #as it happened. if you wanna know something you could ask him #will he answer? depends tbh hes not a gossip. he just happens to know and this stresses him to no end

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